State Attorneys General Launch Legal Attack on Climate Realists

An Egregious Abuse of Power

[Last updated: Mar. 28, 2017]

On March 29, 2016 a group of 17 state attorneys general – 15 Democrats from largely non-oil and gas producing states, one Democrat from the District of Columbia, and one “Independent” from the Virgin Islands – attended a press conference with former Vice President Al Gore announcing their plan to initiate legal action against ExxonMobil and other groups opposing President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Soon afterwards, the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands – a former EPA staff attorney – issued subpoenas to ExxonMobil, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), and PR company called DCI Group. The Heartland Institute has not received a subpoena, but as the world’s leading voice for climate realism, we believe it is only a matter of time.

The A.G.s may be acting on behest of the Obama Administration and liberal Democrats in the Senate. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch testified to Congress that, in response to requests by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Obama administration’s Justice Department has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Exxon and other companies, researchers, and think tanks for exercising their First Amendment rights in promoting climate skepticism. A group of nine Democratic Senators have repeatedly threatened conservative groups that question the Obama Administration’s alarmist dogma on the climate change issue.

The basis of their campaign is Al Gore’s long-discredited claim of a conspiracy among industry and think tanks to mislead the public about climate science. As Russell Cook and other independent researchers have shown over and over again, there is no evidence that such a conspiracy ever existed, only lies and fiction by a small coterie of left-wing environmental activists intent on smearing those who disagree with them. (See GelbspanFiles.com for Cook’s detailed and in-depth reporting on this issue, and Reply to Our Critics for Heartland’s response to false accusations.)

In a March issue of the Climate Change Weekly e-newsletter, Sterling Burnett wrote, “President Barack Obama’s hostility to the free flow of information, open debate, and views contradicting his own appears to have no bounds. The most recent evidence for this is Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She said the Justice Department has discussed pursuing civil action against companies, organizations, and individual scientists who continue to debate the question of whether humans are causing catastrophic climate change.”

On March 30, The Wall Street Journal published a letter to the editor by Heartland Policy Advisor Dan Miller, who wrote: “The indisputable fact remains that the science isn’t settled about the causes, effects and severity of global warming. And skeptical scientists must be free from threat of criminal prosecution to continue their search for answers and solutions.”

In May, The Heartland Institute and other organizations signed an open letter circulated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) denouncing the AG’s campaign as unlawful and un-American. The letter appeared as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times. On July 12 we cosigned an open letter to nine senators, and were among the organizations sent a reply by those same senators on July 22. In August, CEI produced a short video denouncing the legal campaign against it.

The Heartland Institute has been outspoken in criticizing the Justice Department and the state attorneys general for their attack on the free speech rights of global warming realists. A list of what we’ve done that is available online appears below. The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Energy & Environment Legal Institute also have created similar pages of links on their websites, which we highly recommend.

RICO Emails Revealed

On Sept. 1, 2015, 20 academics sent a letter to the White House and Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking the federal government to to launch a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act probe into those who disagree that human CO2 emissions are causing a climate crisis.

The climate realists who were the targets of this witch hunt fought back using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and on May 13, 2016, the abuse of power and position by the #RICO20 and their allies was exposed.

ExxonMobil files Suit Against Mass. AG Maura Healey

On June 15, 2016, attorneys for ExxonMobil filed a “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief” against Maura Healey, the attorney general of the state of Massachusetts. Healey is among the 17 state attorneys general who are part of AGs United for Clean Power, who are using the power of their offices to issue sweeping subpoenas against ExxonMobil and scores of individuals and organizations who corresponded with the company about climate change.

15 GOP State AGs: ‘Stop Policing Viewpoints’

On June 15, 2016, Republican state attorneys general from 15 states wrote a letter to the so-called “AGs United for Clean Power” on the letter head of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. An excerpt:

“This fraud investigation targets only ‘fossil fuel companies’ and only statements minimizing climate change risks. If it is possible to minimize the risks of climate change, then the same goes for exaggeration. If minimization is fraud, exaggeration is fraud.”

Senators Demand DOJ Cease Investigating Climate Realists

May 26, 2016 – U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), and David Vitter (R-La.) today sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, demanding that the Department of Justice (DOJ) end its use of law enforcement resources against political opponents of President Obama’s energy agenda.

“These actions provide disturbing confirmation that government officials at all levels are threatening to wield the sword of law enforcement to silence debate on climate change,” the letter reads. “As you well know, initiating criminal prosecution for a private entity’s opinions on climate change is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and an abuse of power that rises to the level of prosecutorial misconduct.” (Read more)

House Science Committee Scrutinizes Motive of #RICO20

May 18, 2016 — Today, 13 Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental activist organizations. The letters request documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution.

Americans are entitled to express their views on matters of science and public policy even if certain groups disagree. (Read more)

Climate Change ReconsideredClimate Change Reconsidered is the title of a series of scientific reports produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) and published by The Heartland Institute. NIPCC is an international panel of nongovernment scientists and scholars who have come together to present a comprehensive, authoritative, and realistic assessment of the science and economics of global warming. Because it is not a government agency, and because its members are not predisposed to believe climate change is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, NIPCC is able to offer an independent “second opinion” of the evidence reviewed – or not reviewed – by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the issue of global warming.

Heatland's Archive of Climate ConferencesThe Heartland Institute has organized and hosted nine International Conferences on Climate Change since 2008, events that attracted extensive international attention to the debate taking place in the scientific community over the causes, extent, and consequences of climate change. Videos from all the speakers can be viewed on this site.

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Heartland in Paris for COP-21One of the most important battles in the history of the global warming debate was fought November 30 - December 12, 2015 at a United Nations climate conference in Paris known as COP-21, or the twenty-first "Conference of the Parties." The Heartland Institute worked with other leading think tanks and advocacy groups — such as the Cooler Heads Coalition, Heritage Foundation, CFACT, Competitive Enterprise Institute, NIPCC and allied groups in Europe to oppose the agreement. Our voice was heard, and it ensured that energy consumers and taxpyers were represented on the ground in Paris — and that sound science and economics was part of the global discussion.

Heartland's Vatican Environment WorkshopThe Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Roman Catholic Church held a workshop on global warming on April 28, 2015 at the Vatican. The Heartland Institute arrived in Rome to warn Pope Francis that he was only getting half (the alarmist) side of the issue. Global warming is not a crisis, and the United Nations' "solutions" will only make the poor more miserable and keep them in poverty longer.

Greenpeace Is A Global FraudAccording to a lawsuit filed on May 31, 2016, Greenpeace is “a global fraud” that has “fraudulently induced people throughout the United States and the world to donate millions of dollars based on materially false and misleading claims about its purported environmental purpose and its ‘campaigns’ against targeted companies.” The suit says “maximizing donations, not saving the environment, is Greenpeace’s true objective.”

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